How to Give Better Estimates to Your Clients ... and Grow Your Business Faster

Before clients decide to hire you for a particular project, they will need to know the projected timeline and cost. In other words, they will want to understand how long the project is expected to take, the cost of the materials to be used, labor costs, and everything else that might come up.

If your estimate is realistic, you will be better placed at winning more business and avoid running into losses. But coming up with realistic quotes is not always easy. That’s why we’ve compiled several tips to help you create better estimates and grow your business.

When making estimates for big projects, there’s always a tendency to concentrate on the significant parts and overlook the minor ones. Unfortunately, this can result in inaccurate quotes because those seemingly unimportant parts can greatly impact the project’s overall cost. For that reason, you need to break the big project into small bits and create an estimate for each task. This helps you isolate parts that present the most challenges in your estimate, making the project much more manageable. Additionally, breaking down the project into small bits helps eliminate the room for errors, ensuring that you make your quotes as accurate as possible.

Generating a quote is not an exact science. However, it can get confusing when the project is big, and you have nothing to guide you. Luckily, you can find estimation templates with well-laid outlines to help you create accurate quotes. Better still, there are lots of free downloadable templates on the internet that come in different designs and are suited for various industries.

For example, if you’re an electrical contractor, this electrical estimate template can be an excellent tool for making the most accurate estimates for your electrical projects. On top of that, such an estimation tool can help hasten the time spent on quotes.

A single person's estimate may be limited by their knowledge and understanding of the project. That’s why you need to have multiple people make independent estimates for your big project and then compare their approaches to come up with a more accurate quote. Doing this will not only help you give your clients better quotes but will help your business grow as well. 

Competitive pricing should not be confused with selling yourself short. It means that you have adequately done your research and have made your estimates based on the market prices. When you come in too low, clients may have problems trusting you as they may assume you intend to cut corners. 

On the other hand, when you go too high, the client will have questions on how you came up with the figure. Remember, the client will always have a budget based on the market prices when asking for estimates, and considerable deviations from the figure they have in mind could be a red flag.

All estimates are based on assumptions. Therefore, it would help to record all your assumptions in the quote when creating your quote. One of the major benefits of documenting assumptions is that it allows the client to see the various expected outcomes based on different possible scenarios. Additionally, it helps you accommodate and justify changes in the estimates later in the course of the project if any of the assumptions change. 

Although creating estimates may not be the most exciting part of your job as a contractor, it can be a great way of displaying your transparency. If you have been struggling with creating accurate quotes for your clients, the tips highlighted in this post can be a great starting point at giving your clients better quotes and growing your business.